Archive for the 'human rights' Category
April 19, 2013
Intervening at the 53rd ordinary session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, on 18 April 2013, the FIDH and the OMCT, in the framework of their Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, expressed their grave concern about the situation of human rights defenders in Africa, which they stated had not observed an improvement. Violations of human rights targeting defenders have continued, notably in Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Judicial harassment based on false accusations, accompanied by arbitrary arrests and detentions, remains the most common harassment technique, especially in Algeria and Zimbabwe, but also in Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, The Gambia and Sudan. In several countries, including The Gambia and DRC, defenders have also been subjected to threats and smear campaigns. In late December 2012 / early January 2013, the presence in Goma in the Kivu region of non-State armed groups notably led to increased threats against local defenders, forcing many of them to hide or flee into exile. The targeted defenders are, inter alia, members of NGOs and lawyers in Chad, DRC, Zimbabwe, journalists in Djibouti, trade unionists fighting against impunity in Algeria, Djibouti, DRC, Zimbabwe or defending land rights and the right to a healthy environment in Cameroon; defenders of the right to work in Algeria and the right to health care in Sudan; advocates for the abolition of the death penalty in The Gambia, women’s rights in DRC, The Gambia, and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe; and activists campaigning against arbitrary detention in Egypt. Some excerpts follow but the reference to the full report is below:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Algeria, Arab region, Arab spring, Burundi, congo drc, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, FIDH, funding, Gambia, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, regulation, Sudan, threats, World Organisation Against Torture, Zimbabwe
April 18, 2013
The annual lecture on human rights in Maastricht with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, has quickly become a major event on the human rights agenda. As I was not able to attend, i have the great honor to introduce as my first guest author the well-known Theo van Boven, professor emeritus at Maastricht University, former Director of Human Rights in the UN, former Special Rapporteur on several subjects and a Patron of the MEA. With many thanks and in the hope that this will encourage others to contribute:
Theo van Boven 2011 (c) THF
On Wednesday April 17th, the newly appointed Foreign Minister of The Netherlands, Frans Timmermans, came to a very well-attended meeting at Maastricht University where he made a passionate plea for human rights as one of the cornerstones of Dutch foreign policy. While the Foreign Minister was the main speaker, his appearance was framed in a broader setting with other lively presentations on such issues as the need for consistency between domestic and foreign human rights policy (“practise what you preach”), the role of women in the Syrian armed conflict and the Rights of Lesbian ,Gay, Trans, Bisexual and Intersex Persons (LGTBI rights).
Frans Timmermans expressed his strong personal commitment to human rights : “I passionately believe in human rights” and he recalled that no human right was achieved without struggle. He stressed that human rights, the rule of law, and democracy are strongly interconnected but that democratic majorities should respect the rights of minorities and individuals.
The Netherlands foreign minister praised the role of persons,groups and organizations who in situations of great risk are standing up for human rights. He pledged his support for human rights activists/defenders as a “top priority“. It is of crucial importance to help human rights activists in expressing themselves and for The Netherlands to coöperate with other countries, bilaterally and through international organizations, in the defence and the promotion of the values enshrined in human rights instruments.
Among the points that came up in the Q and A discussion were the need to give due and equal weight to the promotion and protection of economic,social and cultural rights together with civil and political rights; the inherent and imminent danger to human rights of the use of drones; the serious reduction in the Netherlands budget for development coöperation ( although not implying the reduction of funds in support of human rights activities); and the persistent evil of human trafficking as a contemporary form of slavery.
Theo van Boven
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Tags: Dutch Foreign Policy, Frans Timmermans, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human trafficking, lecture, LGTBI rights, Maastricht, Maastricht University, MEA, Netherlands, Special Rapporteur, Theo van Boven
April 18, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the detention of two activists by the Sausapor Sub-District Police in Papua, Indonesia. The activists were taken from their house to the police station and were being interrogated in relation to an investigation they conducted regarding the death of villagers in Tambrauw Regency due to the lack of medical treatment. It was reported that the two activists as well as others who were engaged in the investigation were previously followed by police officers.
According to the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Desk of Protestant Church in Tanah Papua GKI-TP, Yohanis Mambrasar and his father, Hans Mambrasar, were taken from their house at Werur Village on 8 April 2013 at 12.20pm by two police officers wearing civilian clothes. The two officers who were identified as Darius Burdam and Sucipto from Sausapor Sub-District Police took the two activists on a black pickup truck to Sausapor Sub-District police where they were interrogated in two separate rooms. He was questioned on the investigation he conducted with his father and other activists regarding the death of Papuans in Tambrauw regency during November 2012 to March 2013, due to the lack of medical treatment. According to Yohanis and information gathered by other activists, the villagers were suffering from various sicknesses including diarrhoea and malnutrition and the lack of medical treatment resulted in the death of the villagers. The two police officers asked Yohanis regarding organisations in Papua which are against the Indonesian government as well as the name of organisations he is working with. Yohanis was later released without any charge on the same day.
Yohanis’ father, Hans Mambrasar, was interrogated separately by four officers wearing civilian clothes, along the same lines as his son. Hans, who is also a priest, was further asked by the police on the source of the funding. Hans was also released by the police without any charge on the same day.
via INDONESIA: Activists are detained by the police for reporting deaths due to lack of medical treatment in Tambrauw, Papua — Asian Human Rights Commission.
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AHRC, arrest, Asian Human Rights Commission, Civil society, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Indonesia, intimidation, NGOs, Papua, Papuan people, Police officer, Police station, right to health, Tambrauw Regency
April 17, 2013
Last week I reported on the Natalia bracelet and yesterday my eye fell on a lengthy piece posted on Amnesty International‘s Livewire by Technology and Human Rights Project Officer Tanya O’Carroll. It describes how emerging digital tools will help activists and human rights defenders. http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/04/15/how-to-turn-a-mobile-phone-into-an-alert-system-for-activists/.
As a student activist speaking out against the government, Hassan is at constant threat of being arrested. The Sudanese government tracks and harasses members of the student movement he belongs to. Reports of his friends and contacts being detained, tortured and even killed by the authorities are frighteningly regular. But Hassan’s network is also well organized. His phone is always on him and he uses it to help organize demonstrations, to record and disseminate video of violent crackdowns against the students and to keep his network updated every minute – a network that stretches from Khartoum to the rest of the globe in the time it takes to send a tweet. If he is able to get word out that he’s been arrested, Hassan knows that his network’s response will be swift and structured. The problem is that he knows the first thing the authorities will seize is his mobile phone. And here’s the double danger of not getting word out: the authorities will use the phone book, call log, messages and any open apps – such as G-Mail or Facebook – to identify and track others. Without knowledge of the arrest, the whole network will be easily compromised. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: activists, AI, Amnesty International, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, Livewire, mobile phones, Natalia project, Panic Button, protection, Security-in-a-box, technology, ThoughtWorks, tool
April 17, 2013
According to the ‘24.kg news agency‘ [only] 394 brides have been kidnapped in Kyrgyzstan in 2012. Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun said this at a meeting of the parliament Committee for Human Rights. He said that the number used to be much larger: “But the Ombudsman’s Institute, human rights defenders, journalists, and us – we all are working on it. We can see positive changes. Rate of brides kidnapping for forced marriage has decreased. A man who kidnapped a bride has been sentenced to 6 years with our assistance”.
However in the related article mentioned below from June 2012 number estimates are much higher: ” Since it often goes unreported, the actual number of bride kidnappings is unknown although Kyrgyzstan Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun estimates that more than 8,000 young women are kidnapped each year.”
http://eng.24.kg/community/2013/04/16/26656.html
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Tags: Bishkek, bride kidnappings, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights of women, kidnapping, Kyrgyzstan, Ombudsman, Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun, research, traditional practices, wedding
April 16, 2013
On 14 April 2013, two prominent human rights lawyers, Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah and Abdikarin Hussein Gorod, were killed when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time: Al-Shabaab adherents in army uniform stormed Somalia’s main court complex in Mogadishu. They were among the approximately thirty people killed in the suicide attack.
Both Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah and Abdikarin Hussein Gorod have worked for a Legal Aid programme funded by the UN Development Programme in Mogadishu and had previously assisted internally displaced persons and other vulnerable individuals. They had recently defended Abdiasis Abdinur Ibrahim, also known as Koronto, a journalist who was jailed for interviewing an internally displaced woman who said she had been raped by state security forces in Mogadishu. A case referred to in this blog and by Front Line Defenders http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21570
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Tags: Abdikarin Hussein Gorod, Al-Shabaab, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyers, killings, Koronto, legal aid, Mogadishu, Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah, Somalia, suicide bombers, terrorism, UNDP
April 16, 2013
UNHCR’s Refworld 2013 goes live this week at http://www.refworld.org. The website has undergone significant changes based on a feedback received from internal and external users over the years.
Refworld started almost 20 years ago as an ever-expanding series of DVD’s containing the different databases of documentation centre of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. With the wider availability of broadband it switched in 2007 to internet only. It was already then considered an advanced protection information resource which aims to facilitate evidence-based and effective decision-making in refugee status determination procedures. Now it functions more broadly as a key tool for evidence-based advocacy relating to resettlement, statelessness, internal displacement, as well as specific protection concerns. The database, updated on a daily basis, now contains more than 167,000 documents relating to countries of origin or asylum, case law, legislation and policy. Especially the ‘country of origin’ information is relevant to human rights defenders as it is in fact a selection of human rights violations documentation. Also the legal information section is a unique collection of worldwide documentation concerning refugee law and statelessness.
Refworld 2013 features a number of improvements, such as: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in books, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 2 Comments »
Tags: databases, documentation, DVDs, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights violations, information, internal displacement, refugee law, refugee status determination, refugees, Refworld, refworld 2013, search tool, statelessness, technology, text search engine, UNHCR, united nations high commissioner, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, User experience
April 16, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about charges brought against a community educator in Burma for teaching political science. Min Min, a human rights defender based in the country’s lowland, is being prosecuted because he refused to heed warnings that he not teaches a course on political science at his community-based education centre. He is currently on bail with the trial underway. The details of the story are below: Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AHRC, Asian Human Rights Commission, Burma, Education, freedom of information, human rights, Human rights defender, Min, Min Min, Myanmar, Ne Win, Political science, political science course, Pyay, Pyi, right to education
April 15, 2013
Interfax-Ukraine on 15 April reports that Ukrainian human rights activists have called for a quick adoption of a law regulating the freedom of demonstration after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Verentsov versus Ukraine. The Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) Arkadiy Buschenko said at a press conference today that human rights defenders had earlier called for the settlement of the legislation on freedom of peaceful assembly and now that the ECHRs judgment recommends that Ukraine liberalize the law in this area, the adoption of such a law becomes even more relevant. In the case of “Verentsov versus Ukraine” the court recognized the violation of Verentsov’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and obliged Ukraine to pay EUR 6,000 in compensation to Ukraine. The ECHR also proposed that Ukraine urgently reform the laws and administrative practices in order to determine the requirements for the organization and holding of peaceful assemblies, in particular, in the context of determining the grounds for restricting rallies. Human rights defenders have already prepared a draft law and submitted it for consideration by a number of MPs.
via Human rights activists call for speedy adoption of liberal law on freedom of assembly.
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Tags: Arkadiy Buschenko, European Court of Human Rights, freedom of assembly, freedom of demonstration, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Interfax-Ukraine, Law, Ukraine, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
April 15, 2013
Having just reported on his trial, it is fair to add that today we were informed by
that human rights defender Abdullah Fairouz was released on bail on 15 April 2013 upon payment of 200 Kuwait Dinars (approximately €536). A court date has yet to be set. During his detention period, Abdullah Fairouz was not permitted access to his lawyer including during interrogation. The human rights defender reported that police officers insulted him whilst in detention.
For more information on this case see the urgent appeal <http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/22298> concerning his arrest on 11 April 2013.
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Abdullah Fairouz, detention, Front Line, Frontline Defenders, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, illegal detention, Kuwait, Middle East, release on bail
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 